Derek pushes me out the door and instructs me to call the police.

"Wait!" Ivan says as I'm already out the door. "Please Derek let me explain."

"No way man. Not this time!" Derek says.

I pick up the phone to call the cops when Uncle Harry busts in the door. "I saw some asshole romping through the yard. Are you ok?"

I point to the bathroom afraid to speak. Harry heads toward the bathroom and Derek turns his head for a split second to look at him. Ivan took that chance to lunge at Derek, slamming his fist into Derek's face. Uncle Harry swung the handle of the shotgun and it caught Ivan's nose and eye and Ivan fell backwards. Derek jumps on top of him and swings repeatedly. Suddenly there's a gun shot! I squint to see who it was and I think it's Nancy. What the heck is she doing here.

"Ivan you had an excellent plan of escape." Nancy said. "I took the page from your book."

"Hi mom." Ivan says.

It's sick how they are standing there staring at each other! Derek's holding his jaw and Uncle Harry is standing there with his shotgun pointed at Ivan and he's guarded.

"Just take him out mom!" Ivan says.

"No" Derek yells as he tries to knock the gun from Nancy's hand.

The gun goes off and the bullet hits Uncle Harry in his legs and he falls to the ground, Uncle Harry's shotgun slams off the ground and it too goes off but it doesn't hit anyone. Nancy takes a shot at Derek this time and he moves out of the way just in time. Uncle Harry's shotgun landed on the ground right outside the bathroom door so I grab it. Where are the cops at? Why haven't they shown up yet? Bam! Another shot, bam bam and Derek dodges all 3 shots. Nancy's gun clicks "fuck" she yells and reaches in her bag for more bullets.

I hoist the shotgun up and aim. My dad taught me how to shoot when I was younger and surprisingly I had a pretty good shot. "Drop the gun Nancy!" I yell.

She looks at me and laughs historically. "Girl you don't have the guts to shoot. You probably don't know how to even shoot." She shoots a bullet at my feet. "I want to see you dance darlin!" She's laughing so hard at this point she gets distracted and shoots, the bullet ricocheted off my boot and hits Ivan in the arm. He cries out in pain. "Oh baby boy I'm so sorry" and she shoots at me again and this time the bullet is planted in my side. I wince and pull the trigger and the shotgun kicks back hitting Nancy in the abdomen. I didn't want to kill her I just wanted to stop her. Nancy falls to the ground and Ivan reaches down taking her gun.

"How dare you bitch!" Ivan yells as pulls the trigger. "Fuck it's jammed" and he's repeatedly cocking it.

"Drop the guns!" A mans voice from behind me shouts and I do what he says. "You son! Drop your gun!" He shouts again.

The gun clicks and Ivan lifts it like he's going to shoot. The cops didn't give him a chance and take multiple shots at him. Ivan's body jerks and jerks with each hit as he falls to the ground and he twitches until he's lifeless. Suddenly I feel the pain from the bullet wound and fall to the ground on all fours. A police officer is hoisting me up putting handcuffs on me.

Derek's now at my side. "What are you doing? Why are you arresting her?" He's shouting. "She didn't do anything, she saved us."

I look over and see the paramedics rolling Nancy and Ivan's bodies out. They were encased in body bags. I didn't think Nancy would die but I did use the shotgun and she lost a lot of blood. I murdered someone, but she was clearly trying to shoot me.

"Tell me what happened young lady." The officer says.

"I got up to go to the bathroom...can I please sit down?" I ask.

"There's no reason you can't stand, quit trying to delay." He says.

"Actually there is a reason." I pull open my housecoat revealing the soaked dark red circle that had formed on my shirt.

"She's going to faint!" Derek's behind me catching me." She needs an medic now!"

The cop looks at me and then at Derek. "I didn't realize she had been shot. Medic in here!"

"I'll tell you what happened. Ella and I were sleeping and she had gotten up to go to the bathroom. Ivan was hiding in there and suddenly I heard her yelling. So I got up and went to see what was going on. When I opened the door I saw him standing there. So I grabbed Ella and forced her behind me and told her to call the police. Uncle Harry saw him run through the yard and came to see what was going on. When he entered the bathroom Ivan hit me and Uncle Harry defended me by hit him back. A gun shot went off and noticed it was Nancy. She shot Harry, Ella grabbed his gun when he fell to the floor. Nancy took a couple shots at Ella and one of the shots ricocheted and hit Ivan's arm. Ella warned Nancy to stop and Nancy shot at me and Ella and Ella was hit so she shot her back in defense. Then ya'll show up and take Ivan down right as he's about to take the rest of us out."

The officer looks at me and walks over and removes my handcuffs. "I'm sorry. I misunderstood the situation."

The paramedic helps me onto the stretcher. Once on the stretcher, the other paramedic cuts open my shirt to expose the wound. He pulls the radio to his mouth "we've got multiple gsw victims, 2 alive and 2 doa. Bringing them in eval." He reaches over grabbing some gauze and applies it to my wound and I flinch. I look over at Uncle Harry and he winks at me letting me know he's ok. Derek is at my side holding my hand. I begin to cry.

"Baby don't cry. It's over now. We all will be ok." He says wiping a tear from my face.

"This is all too much Derek. I just want to live happily. Yesterday I'm at the hospital with a piece of glass jammed into my chest today I'm shot. What's going to happen tomorrow?"

"Baby nothing. They are gone." He says. "Can I ride with them to the hospital?"

"There should be room. We have the two doa's in the one ambulance and I will put you uncle and fiancé in other one." The blond paramedic says.

The paramedic that looked me over closed the doors to the ambulance that Nancy and Ivan were in. They were being taken away forever. I don't feel bad they got what they deserved but I do feel bad for Brad because he's such a nice guy. After Harry was loaded up they next moved me. Each bump and jerk hurt like hell. Once I was in the ambulance Derek climbed in and sat next to me. He watched my stats the whole way. He was premed before taking a break so he knew what to look for.

"We got lucky sweetheart!" Harry says.

"Thank you Uncle Harry for showing up when you did." Derek says.

"No shittin lie I was hanging out the window smoking my cigarette, since I can't smoke in the house when that little asshole went running by. He didn't see me there's no way he did. I put my cigarette out and grabbed my shotgun next to the door and got to you as fast as I could."

"Well it could have ended a lot worse than it did." I say.

Harry reaches over and takes my hand. "I'm sorry sweetheart that you were shot."

I smile assuring him it wasn't his fault. Looking at Derek I see a look of sadness in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I could have lost you, just as quick as I got you to agree to marry me."

"Derek. I'm going to be ok. I'll go in they will remove the bullet and then we can go on with our lives." I reach over and grab his hand, I place it on my heart. "Do you feel that?"

"Yes" he answers.

"I'm alive and so is Harry. It was a freak thing that happened but we will be ok. What matters is we didn't end up in a body bag just like them."

Derek smiles and suddenly everything is all ok. His small and the twinkle in his eyes can fix anything. His lips curl into a smile and he leans down and kisses me.

"Will you two just get a room already!" Harry says jokingly.

We arrive at the hospital and I'm taken straight in for surgery. Derek stays by me the whole way until they tell him someone will come get him when I'm done. I see him turn around and go straight to Harry.

They take me into the OR and I'm moved from the stretched to an operating bed. The anesthesiologist comes in with a mask and puts it over my mouth. She tells me to count down from 10. By the time I got to the number seven it was lights out for me. A few hours later I wake up in the recovery room and Derek is sitting right next me. He seems pleased and happy.